With the advent of large-scale wired and wireless communications networks, such as the Internet and cellular networks, the distribution of multimedia content over these networks may increase. As used herein, the term “multimedia” content includes analog or digital audio, analog or digital image and/or analog or digital video content.
There are generally two techniques for multimedia distribution over networks: streaming and downloading. In streaming, the multimedia content is sent to a user in a continuous stream, and is played as it arrives. In contrast, downloading transmits the data as a computer file, which is then stored at the user device and may be played back after the entire file is downloaded. Often, streaming may be limited in resolution due to potential bandwidth limitations of the network through which the streaming multimedia content is transmitted. However, real-time or near real-time playback may be provided. Downloaded multimedia content may be higher in resolution, but there may be a large playback latency time while the file is being downloaded.